[Toyn]

I hit 4 lakes in 4 days... here is what I found

SATURDAY:: Palina... COLD!!!...did I say COLD!!! 2 feet of snow at the boat ramp.... drive a 4x4 on boat ramp or hope the vehicle floats. 37.5 degree water but the fishing was good. Caught bows, kokes, and browns..... No size to them but there were fish.

SUNDAY:: Wickiup....nice windless day... 48 degree water...NO FISH...NONE....tried trolling deschutes channel for browns.....drifted bugs, worms, and wickiup sandwiches .. NUFFIN.. even tried jiggin with the customary piece of shopeg corn... NUFFIN. Worse, Nobody I talked to at Gull Point CG did anything Sunday. Saturday I was told a few kokes and browns were caught.

Monday:: Crane....water temp was 46.5. WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS GREAT FISHING LAKE? Fished it all day and caught 2 fish. One nice brookie and one nice bow. both of them on powerbait. tried all the faves such as bugs, worms, meal worms......and powerbait worked....hmmmm..The ODFW can look at this lake as a way not to manage a lake. And everyone that used to take coolers of 5lb trout home should be ashamed of themselves. CATCH AND RELEASE PEOPLE. Safeway has trout for 3.99 a lb...and its much cheaper than the gas to drive that far. I wont be back to this lake any time soon...call it a boycott.... and yea..I know there are a bunch of die hards out there hoping to catch the LAST big fish outta there. GOOD luck to ya

TUESDAY:: Odell..... water temp was 42... Wow... kokes up to 17 inches.... and im talkin LOTS of them. And macks too. This is gonna be my lake of choice for a while. I suggest a better than good fish finder to locate the schools of fish. A bad fish finder will mark so many fish that it will mistake them for the bottom. Lure of choice for kokes : Hexagon hooker in Orange with dab of corn.... Macks : Silver hordes or jplugs with glow paint and night crawler draped over trailing hook. Downriggers are a must for macks down 100-140 feet..... all kokes I caught were 70-100 feet deep. Kokes are schooled around the railroad slide and macks were hot down at the east side of the lake.

GOOD TO BE HOME. TIME FOR SALMON AGAIN

 

[lost_sailor]

Excellent report, thanks. Still a few weeks until I make it up there, glad to hear of BIG kokes.

WHAT HAPPENED at Crane was the introduction of BASS.

 

[Flatfish]

Crane never fished well early. There may have been a few big fish caught by the opening day hordes. But summertime after the fish have gone into the channels for the cool water is prime time for lunkers.

Wickiup should have fished better. Paulina, East, Big Lave( stocked with brooders from Crane bloodlines) will only get better as they mature,and the twins usually fish better early on. As soon as they are accesible, Hosmer and Davis will fish too.

It is too bad that October only has 31 days. Fishing gets pretty good during hunting season. But it seems to get forgotten.

Mark and the dog.

 

[greenbuttskunk]

Same is happening to Wickiup. 4-5 years ago when I was up fishing in the deschutes channel at sheep's bridge, I was in my float tube and looked down in horror. Saw some really big bass scooling around along the channel shelfs. They're all over davis too, wonder if they are in hosmer, perfect habitat there for them too. It's sad.

 

[Bounty Hunter]

Great report. Thanks for the information.

I probably won't fish any of those lakes this year because I am too lazy, but I appreciate the information.

 

[Gr8waves]

The Deschutes below Wickiup dam is also great in October. Nice hatch of size 14 cream colored mayflies. Hunt ducks early then catch a few fish during the day, it sure is nice when the seasons overlap.

 

[Hottamale1]

Toyn,

Great report....Thanks. I'll be on Paulina Next Month with Thumper...You goin' Thumper??

Really Too bad on Crane...The bass in there HAVE killed the Trout fishery...Oh, and I remember way back when...27" fish, every day on bugs under a float. How fun WAS that!

Scott

 

[FINZ]

Great report. I won't hit those lakes till summer. Too much fishing for Springers and Astoria Sturgeon in the next few months. Thanks for the report.

 

[kenaifishn]

We made the mistake of staying at Wickiup for 4 days, without tring the other lakes, sounds like I should have driven over to Odell.

We fished most of the lake and hooked 5 fish and landed 2(Kokes).

Has anyone heard if they found the fisherman that went in the water(I think it was Sunday)?

I'll head back in a couple weeks, hope the weather mellows out a little.

 

[SUNRUNNER]

Odell is a fantastic lake--but keep it to yourselves! One of the best kept secrets in the lower 48.
Orange Nordic #25s--they're little metal fish--
cast where they jump--and bam! My dad and I had
17 in an hour doing that on Mothers' Day last year. We'll be back end of May for more of the same.

 

[FallRiverGuy]

How big were the kokanee you caught at Wickiup? Someone else mentioned they took some that were 17 to 18". If so I might have to check this out on Friday.

[ 04-30-2003, 04:00 PM: Message edited by: FallRiverGuy ]

 

[springer_97011]

we caught one koke at wickiup on a rapala that was a little over 2 lbs and 18".brown fishing sucked.

 

[CptCatchem]

Hey Fall River Guy,
Would of reported this to the Kokanee page but it doesnt look like it gets used much anymore ( at least from what I could decipher from it)
We fished Wickiup on the opener as usual and did ok. The fisherman that drowned was camped next to us and we had chatted about an hour before he capsized so it kind of screwed up our saturday.
Because of the really nice weather ..

we didnt try and anchor fish this year but instead opted to just troll for the kokes with the full top up and heater going.....guess maybe we are getting lazy...

We boated 21 kokes Sunday and Monday morn with one 12 1/2" ..one 13"...one 14"..two 15+'s.. the rest over 16 with our best 3 measuring 18,18 and 18 1/2.... big fat guys and like always only landed about 1 in 3 ( that may even be stretching it) ...LOL

Headed back next monday for the week with my brother and hoping for some better weather.

Good fishing to Ya....... Deral

 

[Kruechief]

Whatever you do do not troll rapalas around the snags at Rock Creek (Crane) very fast (3 to 4 miles per hour)!

Krue

 

[Kruechief]

Oh ya, don't jig an orange buzz bomb or Nordic or other orange/red jig with white corn across from Gull Point and into the Deschutes Arm. :wink:

Krue

And what ever you do don't put in below the dam and float down to Bull Bend!!! :tongue:

 

[Sore Back]

Super report. Confirms the fact I will not venture east for a month or two.

Thanks

 

[Time Off]

I love these kind of reports! Great job! I was thinking of trolling Palina lake in June. I take it from the replies that the Bass eat the trout and Kokes? :shrug:

 

[Kruechief]

More like the Bass clean out all the food resources i.e. leeches, grubs, bugs, etc...

It is like how some trees get all the sunshine and nutrients because of the trees rapid early growth.

Krue

 

[Toyn]

I used to spend 2 months a year fishing Crane.....back when I didnt have a sled to support....I know that lake fairly well.. I fished it last year in August and I have NEVER seen so few trophy pics on the lodge's braggin board. I heard from the locals that ODFW no longer plants the 250,000 trout a year like it used to. Maybe I need to get me a bass boat?

 

[1pump]

Saw a bunch of rigs w/ boat trailers parked on Hwy 58 at Odell last Thurs, and again yesterday. It looked nasty out there.
Kokes that deep when the water is that cold? Wow.
Got hooked on mack fishing when I lived in AK. I've been meaning to get up to Odell or Crescent for years, but never made it. :depressed: I gotta go this year. Don't have a "good" fish finder but I do have a downrigger.
Thanx for the report.